PRE 10 – Neoclassic Las Vegas Photo Shootout

PRE 10 — Neoclassic Las Vegas Photo Shootout

October 2-4

SATW’s shootouts became a feature of the Society’s annual meetings starting with the Vegas convention in 2005. These “Day in the Life” style events have grown in popularity, allowing photographers to create a fresh body of images to show and sell. That original Vegas meeting set the standard, and we’re at it again this year, led by the chair of the popular 2005 shootout, Kerrick James.

Participants will have a car and possibly a driver, and there is prize money to be won. Plus, we’ll have insider access that money just can’t buy in Vegas. If you haven’t shot Las Vegas recently, you’ve missed the many new visual bombshells and salable sights. We’ll have 40 hours to capture it, including downtown, the Strip, and the natural world within an hour’s drive. This longer shootout encompasses two sunset/twilight periods and two sunrises, plus you’ll have time for a little rest during the day. Challenge your high-ISO skills, your optics and your creativity in the ever-morphing stage set that is Las Vegas.

We’ll arrive Friday afternoon and check into El Cortez Hotel & Casino in time for a pre-shootout get-together at 5:00 p.m. The first photo op is right outside El Cortez: the First Friday Walking Tour in downtown’s new burgeoning arts district, starting at 6:00 p.m. The tour is a 2-hour guided excursion through the downtown art and crafts festival, a monthly block party that has become the hub of the Vegas arts scene with performance, music, art, fashion, food, drink, entrepreneurialism, style, street life, cultural angst and more. You’ll discover an authentic local homegrown arts community, meeting artists, arts innovators and a host of other movers and shakers and get a glimpse of how the local art scene sometimes intersects with the larger cultural life of the Strip.

Aim your camera wherever you wish, but note that every shooter will have a single-subject assignment relating to El Cortez. We’ll provide a shot list with suggested subjects from Downtown Las Vegas, the Strip, and outside town, with details on approved access, contacts, etc. No one is limited to this list, but we bet (pun intended), you’ll find it valuable. Note: Following the pre-shootout get-together, meals and fuel costs are not included in the cost of joining this tour.

The shootout ends at 10 a.m. Sunday, October 4. You’ll have the afternoon and evening to edit and assemble your 10 most worthy images (including the assigned El Cortez photo), to turn in by 8 a.m. the following morning. Winners will be announced during the 60th Anniversary Gala evening.